Removing stuck hydraulic lines

[0x00fj]

I'm in the middle of a bunch of front drive work on a LHD '73 GS Club -- replacing both brake disks and putting new gaiters on the driveshafts. I'm having trouble with the left-hand-side brake caliper. The supply line enters that caliper from the brake pedal, and the line is secured in some sort of bracket that's attached to the caliper itself.

On this car, every hydraulic line I've removed has been stuck in its bore. To remove the right-side caliper, I cut the line between the two calipers so I could rotate the line and free it. I'd like to avoid doing that again. Any suggestions on how to free the lines when there's not much room to wiggle them?

[Stickyfinger]

Heat, use a "Micro torch"....I have found them very useful/effective. Note, get a very small butane "Pen type", the larger "Chief type" I think are a little to big to get into tight spaces and the flame a little to large. These allow you to keep the flame directly on the union without over heating the pipe, I always replace seals but they never seem to suffer as they are deep inside the fitting.

Also, a Snap-On flair nut wrench, others always round off the union, expensive but you will only buy them once and no need to buy a set.
Review/testing

[Stonehopper]

Great review on pipe spanners.
I have one of those pen torches. Cheaper than chips at £2.50 from the far East, the only issue I found was the very small amount of gas they can hold, resulting in frequent refills. But does the job.

[0x00fj]

To be clear -- the fitting unscrews easily. However, the line remains trapped inside, perhaps by the seal. I was able to free the line going from the brake pedal to the caliper by wiggling it vigorously, but there's not much room for that on some of the other lines.

[Stickyfinger]

Heat, but less of it ....to soften the seal if it has gone hard....again the Micro Flame allows you to control where and how much and allows you to build up the heat slowly.